One of the pre-tournament favourites Judd Trump was by far the biggest name to exit in the first round of the World Championship as he was beaten by huge outsider Rory McLeod. In fact Trump was such a favourite to win the match that he was shorter odds before the match started than John Higgins was to beat Martin Gould 'in-play' when Higgins was 7-2 ahead.
Trump justified this when he took an early 4-0 lead, but all of a sudden things started to turn around and McLeod clawed his way back into the match. At 2-4 I began to sense that something was happening whilst watching the match on table one from inside the Crucible. Then when the curtain came up McLeod seemed to get stronger and Trump just became more frustrated. In the ninth frame Trump played a wild cutback on a thin red opening all of the other reds on the table, and leaving McLeod a huge chance to lead 5-4.
Even at this stage many would have thought that this was just a blip for Trump who would come out the next day firing. This could not have been further from the truth as he started to then show signs of an injury (though as he skipped his press conference at the end of the match I guess we will only be able to speculate). After a very slow session they were taken off with McLeod leading 9-7 and just a frame from knocking Trump out. When they came back around seven hours later Trump managed to get a frame back at 8-9 but could not force the decider as McLeod stepped up and finished the job.
As I right this 14 of the first round games have been completed and only four seeds have exited the competition. One of these was Anthony McGill on the opening day, though losing to Stephen Maguire was not a great surprise as Maguire had been a top 16 seed for many years before this. As I and many others seemed to predict Ryan Day the lone Welshman in the draw and the sixteenth seed, was heavily beaten 10-4 by Xiao Guodong. That adds to 10-4 victories over Mark King and Sam Baird that Xiao picked up in qualifying. Elsewhere, Ali Carter was seen off by 2006 world champion Graeme Dott which again can never be classed as a huge surprise given Dott's world championship record.
The two uncompleted first round matches as of Thursday morning are Barry Hawkins and Tom Ford which is 7-2 to Hawkins who at this point is the only seed remaining in the bottom quarter. Meanwhile Neil Robertson also has a big lead, 8-1 ahead of Noppon Saengkham.
On a slight side note an interview that was put up on the Eurosport website yesterday with Robertson has revealed his addiction to video games, and how he has had to go "cold turkey" on certain games as he puts this down to his recent loss in form.
Otherwise the results have been fairly routine, though Shaun Murphy had to battle hard against Yan Bingtao. That is turning into a great match up whenever they play. Yan fought from 5-9 to 8-9 and looked like forcing a deciding frame until a gutsy clearance saw Murphy complete a 10-8 victory. That was a brilliant match to witness, as was the Marco Fu comeback against Luca Brecel as he recovered a 7-2 deficit from the opening session to come through 10-9. It was a shame for Brecel who did not do loads wrong in the second half of the match and played nicely in session one, but at his age plenty more opportunities will come.
First Round Results:
Mark Selby 10-2 Fergal O'Brien
Xiao Guodong 10-4 Ryan Day
Neil Robertson 8-1 Noppon Saengkham *
Marco Fu 10-9 Luca Brecel
Shaun Murphy 10-8 Yan Bingtao
Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 Gary Wilson
Liang Wenbo 10-7 Stuart Carrington
Ding Junhui 10-5 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 10-5 Peter Ebdon
Kyren Wilson 10-6 David Grace
Mark Allen 10-8 Jimmy Robertson
John Higgins 10-6 Martin Gould
Barry Hawkins 7-2 Tom Ford *
Graeme Dott 10-7 Ali Carter
Stephen Maguire 10-2 Anthony McGill
Rory McLeod 10-8 Judd Trump
*After first session, with second sessions to be played on Thursday.
LAST 16 DRAW:
Mark Selby Vs Xiao Guodong
Marco Fu Vs Neil Robertson or Noppon Saengkham
Shaun Murphy Vs Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ding Junhui Vs Liang Wenbo
Stuart Bingham Vs Kyren Wilson
John Higgins Vs Mark Allen
Barry Hawkins or Tom Ford Vs Graeme Dott
Stephen Maguire Vs Rory McLeod
The place to start in the draw is with the matches kicking off on Thursday. First we have Stuart Bingham and Kyren Wilson. I did not see much of Wilson's round one game but he seemed he had to play well to see off Grace who put on a decent show on debut at the Crucible. Meanwhile Bingham's game with Peter Ebdon could have been a lot closer. Ebdon could and arguably should have won three frames that went the other way in the final session. In the 'Twitter World Championships' those that voted on this second round match felt Wilson would win there is certainly a case for that given how well he played at the Crucible a year ago beating Joe Perry and Mark Allen. Bingham meanwhile has only ever passed the second round twice, one of which was obviously his winning year of 2015.
Then there is the tie of the round starting on Thursday evening with Shaun Murphy playing Ronnie O'Sullivan. Both played tough opponents on the table in round one and had to play very well to come through those respective matches. Away from the baize though there has been plenty of talk. O'Sullivan has caused a stir with comments made about Barry Hearn and World Snooker, and following a statement issued by Hearn himself, O'Sullivan has had to come back with his own statement where he has said he will answer no further questions. Murphy meanwhile was asked about this in his press conference and, where other players have stuck up for O'Sullivan, he was very critical of him which adds some extra spice to this meeting. They met of course over the same length of match back in the 2014 Crucible quarter-finals, when Murphy was thrashed 13-3 from 2-0 in front. A lot has changed since then though and I think Murphy will be fired up more than ever to send O'Sullivan packing, who I'm sure will be able to put the distractions of the past few days behind him and concentrate once more on the job in hand and pleasing his army of fans.
Mark Selby cruised past Fergal O'Brien on the opening day and now faces Xiao Guodong who I think will give him a very good match. Xiao thrashed Ryan Day as well as Mark King and Sam Baird in qualifying which is no easy feat. He looks very close to getting back to the form that saw him make the 2013 Shanghai Masters final when many thought he would kick on, but now he may just do that. Selby is incredibly tough to beat over this long format and he should still come through this and make the quarter-finals. In fact it would be very surprising if he did not get to the magic number of 13 frames in this match, but there is no reason why his Chinese opponent cannot push him close.
The Chinese fans will be licking their lips at that prospect but also a match up between their two highest ranked players as Ding Junhui faces Liang Wenbo in round two. Ding played very well in session one against Zhou Yuelong and is a worthy favourite here against a player in Liang who looked very edgy again in round one against Stuart Carrington who was equally as nervy in the final session of that match. Liang will have to settle down much quicker here against last year's losing finalist.
Stephen Maguire is a pretty heavy favourite to beat Rory McLeod in the second round having romped to victory in round one. It would be a pretty big surprise if McLeod repeated his opening round heroics against Trump, but we all know how easily Maguire can become frustrated in matches and his recent Crucible record is still not the best. If McLeod can play his own game, score reasonably well and get under the Scot's skin early then he has a chance of completing another big upset.
Another Scot John Higgins will be favourite against Mark Allen. Allen had to dig deep against Jimmy Robertson and has not had the best of seasons overall so he will need to find top form against Higgins to get through. Higgins was made to work slightly harder from 5-0 up against Martin Gould eventually coming through 10-6 but his record against Allen is a mixed one. Allen won their last meeting, though that was over the best-of-7 frames, but more significantly he did overcome Higgins in the Masters back in January. Higgins tasted the success against Allen at the UK Championships, as well as recording a 9-3 victory in the China Championship semi-finals which does not bode as well for the Northern Irishman. Overall, Allen just leads the head to head (if you remove the Championship League) including three wins against Higgins in the Masters. It is the Scot who won their only World Championship meeting all the way back in the 2009 semi-finals 17-13, with Allen making that a very tough game for Higgins.
These second round matches looking mouth-watering and it whatever happens it will be a brilliant line-up for the quarter-finals next week.
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